High Fidelity Met Data Systems

I just signed a letter calling on U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and Congress to renew the vital tax credit for wind and other sources of renewable energy. The Production Tax Credit (PTC) helps wind energy compete with highly subsidized fossil fuel industries, attracts investors for new wind projects, fosters innovation and employs tens of thousands of Americans in the clean energy economy.

Because of wind energy’s growing success, dirty energy billionaires, like the Koch brothers, campaigned to kill the renewable energy credit program. Congress is at a crossroads.

Will they support policies and industries that increase carbon pollution, fueling climate-related disasters? Or will they take action to promote safe, clean energy that will allow us to stabilize the climate?

As incoming Chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Wyden will play a major role in deciding which direction Congress goes.

NaturEner USA has partnered with WINData LLC and OSIsoft, LLC to improve forecasting of ramp events for the Glacier Wind farms in Montana. The effort is a DOE funded research project to improve forecasts of ramps events for wind farms, titled “Use of real-time off-site observations as a methodology for increasing forecast skill in prediction of large wind power ramps one or more hours ahead of their impact on a wind plant”.

NaturEner is uniquely interested in improving wind forecasts because the Glacier Wind farm operates as a wind only balancing authority, and improved forecasts are the most cost effective way to improve reliability and reduce integration costs. Toward this end, NaturEner has specified performance metrics to quantify the ability of the forecast to predict ramp events. WINData and OSIsoft have created a grid of next generation offsite meteorological sensors in the region around the wind farm, and have contracted with Garrad Hassan to help develop WINDataNOW Technology, a novel forecasting approach to incorporate these measurements. The OSIsoft PI software is being used to collect and transfer the data to Garrad Hassan, and to display the forecasts and measurements to NaturEner’s real time scheduling desk. WINData and Garrad Hassan are presenting promising preliminary results at the UWIG forecasting workshop. NaturEner is now receiving the forecasts and will evaluate their performance operationally.

Combining upstream weather observations with complex forecasting models to increase confidence in day ahead and intra- hour power predictions

Customers can perform routine calculations on a real-time basis as data arrives to the system rather than in batches. These calculations can also be augmented over time so that some users can start simply and expanding their analyses as they discover more applications of interest.

FUTURE DISCUSSION

WINDataNOW is leveraging operating wind plants and technology partners to better describe the possibilities for using high fidelity, real-time meteorological data for wind farm site selection, design and operation.

WINData professional services comprise meteorological (“met”) system array design, tower specification, project installation and data integration to support end user wind integration requirements and forecasting data services. WINData has partnered with OSIsoft to develop “WINDataNOW!”, an advanced meteorological measurement system built on PI, for use as framework for tools used by wind energy system integrators, forecasters and plant operators.

In addition to the owner/operators, the PI system is used extensively by the various Transmission System Operators as the real-time basis for the EMS networks, integrating the various generation sources into the grid. The WINDataNOW! solution provides real-time PI to PI transfer of processed information directly into the scheduling coordinator and system operator environments.

WINData’s “WINDataNOW! Technology” was developed under research support from John Deere Renewables, NaturEner and the US Department of Energy. WINDataNOW! is a 4G high-fidelity real-time met data technology leveraging OSIsoft PI for use by wind energy integrators, forecasters, developers and plant and system operators.

WINDataNOW’s core technology takes advantage of many industry standard pieces of equipment and combines them to deliver real-time meteorological data to users. Various meteorological tower configurations and instrument combinations are possible and vary by individual site characteristic and customer specifications. WINDataNOW can even add non- standard sensors as required to further characterize the wind flows of a prospective site.

While today’s site assessment technology relies on 10 minute average wind speed readings, the WINDataNOW technology records a much higher fidelity data set (usually second-by-second data). Legacy systems paint an even more incomplete picture of a site’s potential operations once that 10 minute average data is rolled into hourly, daily or monthly averages.

WINDataNOW’s technology gives users the flexibility to use their high fidelity data in any manner necessary. They can easily assess a site’s behavior and dynamics during seasonal, diurnal, or synoptic variations over long periods of time without sacrificing their source data quality.

In order to deliver higher fidelity data to customers, WINDataNOW uses quality instrumentation that can deliver a more exact representation of the wind speed information to the WINDataNOW data acquisition system. The system is able to communicate wirelessly to a central server and deliver near-real time data to customers.

Because WINDataNOW uses OSIsoft’s industry leading PI System as its data repository, most utility and operating companies can use their live met data at its full fidelity just like any other data source that feeds their on-site PI System. This enables wind experts to interact with their data in familiar tools such as Excel, or PI ProcessBook. Met data can also feed directly into forecasting provider models and can be used to support rapid refresh.

Renewable energy, responsible natural resource management, and energy independence have become hot topics in politics, the marketplace, and on Main Street. Wind energy has long been the cornerstone of the renewable energy movement, and is easily the most visible and tangible of all the emerging renewable energy sources.While the prospect and promise of wind energy is attractive, the realities of effective energy production lie beneath the purview of the public’s eye. To help make wind energy a more viable component of the United States’ energy portfolio, the current administration has created grant programs to help spur innovation across a wide spectrum of wind energy topics. These include prospecting, equipment and farm design, forecasting, and energy management.

WINDataNOW Technologies, LLC (“WINDataNOW”) believes that significant opportunity exists for improvements in the operation of existing wind farms. Through the application of modern instrumentation and data collection techniques,

WINDataNOW believes that significant design and operating advantage can be achieved by developing a more rigorous understanding of how a wind resource behaves. From selecting the right location to maximizing the power output and stability of the grid – a detailed understanding of a wind resource and return significant efficiency and equipment availability gains in addition to insulating an operating company from the inherent penalty risks associated with bidding into today’s power markets.

Customer companies use WINDataNOW’s technology to get the meteorological data they need to make critical operating and resource assessment decisions with confidence. Applications of WINDataNOW’s technology are far reaching and include:

Optimal site selection and characterization

Using detailed meteorological data for reduction in forecast uncertainty to improve scheduling, planning, and operations

Understanding the wind turbulence profile of the site

Creating the ideal wind farm design for a particular site

WINDataNOW’s technology leverages the significant advantage of being able to fit in-place with existing systems and works right alongside all the usual operating information from industry standard SCADA systems. Using WINDataNOW’s technology, operating companies gain unparalleled insight into their operations on a minute by minute basis and can more predictably participate in their utility market.